Deprogramming Fear

July 15, 1985

IF THE $39 MILLION punishment verdict issued in May to the Church of Scientology by a U.S. court in Portland, Ore., stands, we are all in grave danger. The mental, spiritual and religious freedoms our forefathers fought for and won at the cost of life and blood have now been violently assailed.

The Portland court determined that this new, yet established religion should be severely punished. This is a serious intrusion upon religion by the state.

The judgment upheld the claim of a former Scientology parishioner who, by her own statements, had been happy with her church until she was kidnapped by hired deprogrammers, held captive for days and forced to submit to a continuous, heavy barrage of insult and attack on her beliefs and her church. The intensive anti-religious regimen obviously was successful.

In a complete reversal of her convictions, she became the willing accomplice of her deprogrammers and at their urgings brought suit against the church she had formerly espoused, claiming she had been defrauded and damaged. It is sickening totalitarian drama. First, we have the planned, deliberate (and criminal) use of imprisonment and prolonged harassment to break the will of an individual so that his beliefs can be made to conform to those of his captor.

It is one of the oldest crimes of mankind seeking legitimacy through its modern euphemism -- ''deprogramming.''

If this monstrous assault on our liberties is not halted, we can welcome the woes of religious oppression and legalized brainwashing.